Confessions of the Overwhelmed Older Sibling: Navigating Responsibilities, Mediations, and Secrets in the Family Dynamic

Being an older sibling is stressful as hell
because you gotta set the standard.
Your parents put all the pressure on you,
and as soon as that second child is born,
by default, you become a parent.
You are now a false parent
because you responsible for helping take care of the other child,
even though you didn’t sign up for none of this.
Also, when your siblings get older and they get mad at y’all parents,
they gonna call you and say stuff like,
let me tell you what your mama then did.
First of all, that
that’s our mama. That’s our mama.
That’s your mama, too.
But no, your parents will stress you out
because they gonna tell you stuff about your family
that they ain’t gonna never tell your other siblings.
Now, you gotta be sworn to secrecy with this heavy stuff.
They gonna come up here, just so you know,
your aunt, that’s not really your grandfather’s daughter.
Why. Why do I need to know that?
That. That’s not some I should know.
I, i’mma love her regardless of what’s going on.
And then anytime your parents get into it with your siblings
and they got an attitude, you are the designated mediator.
You gotta come in and you gotta talk and act like the judge to,
to mediate what’s going on between them.
If some goes wrong, your parents gonna look at you to fix it.
Anytime an issue arises, you will be the first Call.
As the oldest sibling. I want to talk to all the rest of y’all.
I understand your pain and I want you to know I, I, I,
I feel you and I’m here for you.
But don’t call me, cause I already got enough to deal with. My family.